1st March 1948.

If anyone thought all the destruction and chaos of the past two days would surely be enough for the angry rioters and looters, they were dead wrong.

As long as there were other Levantine and European shops still operating around town, there were more places fit for the wrath of these folks. Nothing was going to cool them down any time soon; they had been taken advantage of long enough.

And now Accra wasn’t the only place where havoc was being wreaked; Kumasi, Koforidua and a few other cities and towns were experiencing outbursts of violence and looting as well.

The people of Gold Coast were well and truly fed up.

***

The manager and attendants of Gloris Stores, located around Labone, probably couldn’t believe their luck. Two days of furious riots, yet their shop had not been touched. Many other stores like his had not been spared the wrath of the rioting folk. Yet somehow, their store was yet to be spotted by the angry ones.

The manager stood outside the store, looking around and nodding in satisfaction. Yep, Monday morning had arrived, and there was not a single rioter in sight.

Well, what a relief, the manager thought to himself, walking back into the store and heading for his office. Too bad those hooligans destroyed the other stores. But at least I don’t lose out like the rest of them-

A scream cut his thoughts short. Before he could turn and find who the screamer was, a large rock flew through the glass display window, shattering it to pieces.

“Oh, crap!” he moaned out loud.

He had assumed too early.

The rioters had come for his shop.

***

Satisfied with the damage his missile had caused, Kofi led the charge as the rioters swarmed Gloris Stores, ready to inflict damage and strip it bare.

As he and Justice moved in, the manager rushed towards them, clearly in the mood to fight them off. “GET OUT OF MY STORE, YOU HOOLIGANS!” he bellowed as he charged towards them.

He might have been a stocky Lebanese man, but the passion and rage flowing through their veins was more than enough to push him to the ground. Sprawled on the ground, he looked up at them in terror. His store attendants had run for cover for fear of their lives, and a few other looters looked ready to give him a proper beatdown.

Justice, Kofi, and these other looters moved menacingly toward him, prompting him to quickly rise to his feet and run to his office.

“Chale! Forget about him! Get what you can and let’s move!”

Kofi’s order was swiftly obeyed, as everyone in the store immediately made for the shelves and pulled out whatever they could. The objective was to wipe the store clean, just as had been done to the many other stores.

The looting went on for a few more minutes before the manager rushed out of his office, screaming wildly.

“GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY SHOP NOW!”

In his hand was a pistol.

As the looters busily picked all the items off the shelves while roaring chants of “Enough is enough” and “We no go sit down make them cheat us every day”, most of them were oblivious to this.

Including Justice.

As he snatched loaves of bread off the shelf which was the closest to the office of the owner, his arms were filled with all these loaves, so his attention was nowhere near what was going on. The yells of the owner were just useless noises to his ears.

Until he looked briefly in the direction of the owner.

And saw the pistol aimed right at him.

His eyes grew wide in terror.

A scream of fright readied itself to erupt from his mouth…

And the manager immediately pulled the trigger before it could come forth.

Everyone in the shop heard those two shots that followed, and a different kind of pandemonium ensued.

The looters scrambled towards the exit, panicking and trying their level best to not fall victim to this store manager’s weapon.

This store manager, seeing the effectiveness of this method, fired a couple more shots in the air, then into the mass of retreating rioters.

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SHOP! LEAVE! GO! NOW!”

In a matter of seconds, the store was empty.

Ransacked? Most definitely. But at least, it wasn’t as empty as other shops, which had been licked absolutely clean by the looters. A number of goods remained.

The manager looked at the broken glass doors and windows. “Goodness me, these fools have ruined my shop,” he muttered to himself.

He looked down at the young man he had downed with those two shots to the chest and snorted in disgust. “Serves you right for messing my business up,” he snarled before turning back to his office.

***

“Where are you taking my boys to? Officer, where are you taking them to?”

The demands of Efo Norman were ignored by the four police officers who had David, Elorm, Mustapha and Mohammed in their grasp as they dragged them from the Avudega residence.

Even though the riots and looting had not reached the town of Adukrom and its environs, the pockets of violence on staff of the Agricultural Department had persisted for a couple of days. Even the Police Service was not spared, as some of its officers were attacked by hostile crowds around Old Tafo and Oseim.

Considering the number of police cars and officers around, it looked like they were ready to deal with everyone who had engaged in the brutalities dished out to their officers and Agricultural Department staff.

So even as the officers dragged Efo Norman’s boys away, he knew full well why they had come for them. He just wasn’t going to let them off the hook that easily. He had no problem with the actions of his boys, and he was making it clear.

“Where are you taking them to? Huh? What do you expect them to do? These silly Agricultural workers are coming to destroy our farms and you think they won’t rise up to defend them? Mister Officer, there’s no need for this, there’s no need! They didn’t go and attack any policeman; all that happened around Oseim. Arrest those ones if you like, but let my boys go! They’ve done you no wrong!”

The officers barely heeded the words of this elderly man as they dragged these aggressors off to the police station.

Damn! Looks like Justice’s story comes to a tragic end here. And what’s gonna happen with David and his guys? Well, we close this story out in the final episode…